KindleTool: Create/Unpack Kindle update files

[geekmaster]

Originally Posted by NiLuJe

@geekmaster: That's usually what happens when the kernel doesn't know what to do with the binary (wrong arch), but, err, that seems unlikely here?

I'm not sure anyone here ever had any experience with a K1 though, so, good luck ;p.

That binary is the same one in my "video player" thread. I wanted to see if it would at least run before modifying the framebuffer location (and I was even thinking of making a symlink from /dev/fb0 to /dev/fb/0 so the old gmplay would still work as-is. No "wrong arch" binary, so still a bit confuzzled about the problem on my K1. Will revisit later...

More puzzling is why my install.sh cannot source a companion script, even when copying similar code directly from the resident "otaup" script (where it should be safe to assume that it does indeed work).

I think it would be cool to launch a KUAL-like menu from an update-install.bin file, without any rooting or jailbreaking involved (other than borrowing from the jailbreak method of running root-code. Another thing I have wanted to do is a custom RAM-resident uboot and/or kernel to launch a root (native) menu system with MfgTool (usb downloader mode), to launch and run apps from user store (or SD card, in the case of the K1).

[geekmaster]

@NiLuJe: Also, thanks again for providing binaries for the win32 kindletool, which is enabling my K1 (mis)adventures at the moment (until I build another linux hardware machine from my largish collection of quite capable computer hardware, before it all goes hopelessly obsolete).

Also, google shows that you (if indeed you) seem to be fond of taking panorama pictures. I have a collection of full 360 images I have been taking (some of which are online).

[NiLuJe]

@GM: Nope, that's not me .

The nickname is rather common though, since it happens to be the most commonly used anagram of "Julien" (... which isn't actually my name either. Don't ask ;p). As for actual homonyms, never looked into it, but yeah, probably a few, too.

[geekmaster]

Originally Posted by NiLuJe

@GM: Nope, that's not me .

The nickname is rather common though, since it happens to be the most commonly used anagram of "Julien" (... which isn't actually my name either. Don't ask ;p). As for actual homonyms, never looked into it, but yeah, probably a few, too.

It was somebody who went by NiLuJe (complete with identical capitalization), who lives in Paris France. So just a coincidence? Well, lots of folks have hijacked "geekmaster" (which I have used for decades) in lots of forums, so...

[NiLuJe]

Since one of the origins of the nickname is a (now long defunct) obscure but cherished local radio show, most of them/us are around Paris, yeah .

[geekmaster]

I have been noticing something unusual on my K1 about residual update_install effects. I last used an install.sh that does "animation" on the eink display. Whenever my kindle wakes up from screensaver mode, my install animation runs, every time (including when I plug in the USB cable while it is showing a screensaver). None of the usual update install screens are displayed, so it seems otaup is not running. I wonder if this happens (but with no apparent visual evidence) on newer kindles...

I am curious though why waking up from a screensaver (or even launches a residual update_install script (firmware version 1.0.8). And when plugged into USB, it seems to wake itself up periodically (about every 3 or 4 screensavers) for no apparent reason, catching my attention because of my animation install scripts that keeps spontaneously running...

To be safe, I suppose install scripts should clean up and delete themselves, to prevent this (hidden in most cases) phenomenon.

[NiLuJe]

@geekmaster: You mentioned the lack of /var, which might indeed mean that, unlike on newer devices, otaup doesn't cleanup after itself .

That doesn't really explain why those scripts suddenly run for no apparent reason (unless they never got killed?), but, still ;p.

[geekmaster]

Originally Posted by NiLuJe

@geekmaster: You mentioned the lack of /var, which might indeed mean that, unlike on newer devices, otaup doesn't cleanup after itself .

That doesn't really explain why those scripts suddenly run for no apparent reason (unless they never got killed?), but, still ;p.

They do not loop, and installs are unpacked into /tmp/ which I believe is one of the 10 RAM disks. It probably disappears if you do a hard reset, not just when it is in screensaver mode (mostly asleep). Turning the power switch off (which blanks the screen) does not prevent the install script running again after it goes into and comes out of screensaver mode. Strangely, though my script does not loop (just one pass and return 0, and it is in a directly name with unique process ID, it still RERUNS now and then. Also, when plugged into USB, it sometimes awakes unexpectly and runs the script before displaying the home screen.

K1 has enough differences to be interesting, including no var, no apparent keystores in the mounted file systems, and lots of unmounted partitions. Also, it uses the Samsung XRS flash manager, with bml0 (block management) devices that do not do write wear-levelling (only mounted read-only) and stl0 (sector translation layer) overlays with write wear-levelling and bad block removal (and spare sectors to replace them). Difficult to decide which level (raw or translated) to backup and restore, with potential device dependence (depending on flash wear and sector relocation). And an intel SoC instead of FreeScale (now NXP). Interestingly, the /test/ folder on my K3 seems to support a wide range of devices including K1 and K5, newer than K3, based on contained comments. I also have a /test/ folder on one of my K4 devices. I will eventually try copying K3 /test/ to my K1...

I suppose I should document this stuff in an independent thread, even though it is a derivative of this thread because my explorations began with kindletool. And we seem to be missing a K1 prefix and prefix index?

[geekmaster]

I am confused now. After turning off backdoor lock (KUAL extension) on my K5g, any update.bin package I copy to its userstore gets deleted immediately on USB eject. Grey in UYK, and missing even if plugged into computer immediately after USB eject. Any file names "update*.bin" goes missing. Firmware version 5.1.2, wifi+3g, s/n B00F***). I even copied USBnet.xml to update_junk.bin and it was gone after USB eject and insert.

Ideas? Of course, I could re-do kubrick on it. Does 5.1.2 really require MRpi installs?

EDIT: Hmm... I tried MRpi, but it said "destroying package" while running, and no evidence that my install.sh script ran (no log file on /mnt/sh, nor any eink animation). Ideas?

[NiLuJe]

@geekmaster: otacheck scraps invalid packages on userstore remount, and MRPI also honors the device check, so, I'd say you're not targeting the right model in your package?

You can check MRPI's logs to confirm: /mnt/us/extensions/MRInstaller/log/mrinstaller.log

[geekmaster]

It is a K5 with 3G. I tried ALL the K5 variants that kindletool creates. And a K1 (because I had it), and then a renamed XML file. All deleted immediately on USB ejection on this K5 5.1.2 (airplane mode, then kubrick, KUAL, backdoor locked, 3G on to test lock -- no background OTA update, so backdoor lock worked).

Question: do I need a different update type? Now using:
..\..\kindletool create ota -d k5g * ../Update_autorun_k5g_0.1.GM_install.bin
from the folder containing only my install.sh script.

EDIT: Ahh... I see... You used OTA2 for K5 packages. I will try that now.

EDIT: Hmm... With OTA2 it fails with: "Error opening temp file: Invalid argument. Cannot write update to output." Probably another instance of trying to write to drive root instead of local directory. Need more of that patch of mine we added? Create OTA works, but create OTA2 fails.

EDIT3: I copied your K5 Dummy install, and it survived USB eject and replug. The K5 must validate any update packages it finds on userstore immediately after ejecting USB from a host PC. I will eject again and try UYK. Yes, it ran. So until we have a good win32 kindletool that uses non-root temp files for OTA2 updates, it looks like I need to use a linux version. My old K1 firmware works fine with OTA updates, but that may change after I update to newer firmware.

EDIT4: Nope, don't see it in the latest kindletool source. HOWEVER, I did see this file: kindletool_create_tarball_a03440 left sitting in my install directory along with install.sh, and I did see source code trying to MOVE tarball files to temp, so perhaps my win32 patch is causing this to fail while moving a tarball onto ITSELF in the current directory? Okay, perhaps that "." we added for win32 needs to change to ".." (which requires the current dir be at least two levels deep from root.

[geekmaster]

Okay, I changed win32 temp path from "." (current dir) to ".." (parent dir) to prevent OTA2 failing when moving the tarball file from current to temp dirs (which are the same for win32, until we build in my latest tiny patch). I think you can move a file to itself (just a redundant rename) on linux, but apparently not win32... Of course, I did not yet test this (no useful mingw toolchain yet). I sent you a pull request on kindletool.h.

[NiLuJe]

@geekmaster: otaup might indeed require otav2 packages, but MRPI certainly doesn't, so that's intriguing. Could you take a look at its log, to see how it actually complained?

I'll look into the win32 thing again (probably next week)... :].

EDIT: PR won't help, that's a standard(-ish) tmpfile() call failing.

[geekmaster]

I tried the cygwin version after installing the recommended packages, but when I run kindletool (in the cyg shell), I get a "cyghogweed-2.dll not found". The cygwin setup cannot find one in their archives (where I installed libnettle4 et al). Google only finds cyghogweed in a bunch of virus scanner websites... Whazzup wit dat?

[NiLuJe]

@geekmaster: That's the other bit from nettle. Install it (nettle) from the Cygwin package manager. IIRC, that's the only dep, libarchive is still statically linked.